Marketing Agency Benefits: Should You Hire One?

Working with a digital marketing agency can save time and money — and lead to better results for your business. Learn more about marketing agency benefits inside.

Rather than hiring full-time employees, consultants, and freelancers to manage your digital marketing efforts, a marketing agency can deliver a bigger ROI faster.

We spoke with HawkSEM Director of Agency Operations Ericka Murray about marketing agency benefits and how the right team of experts can supercharge your marketing efforts.

Benefits of a full-service digital marketing agency

1. Faster results
2. More cost efficient
3. Streamlined communication
4. Aligned goals and priorities
5. Synced marketing channels
6. Quicker feedback and iterations
7. A stronger understanding of your customers
8. Identify patterns and trends
9. Access to a diverse roster of experienced marketing pros
10. Ability to scale up (or down) as needed

1. Faster results

One of the key benefits companies see from partnering with a full-service agency is the ability to get better results faster.

The main reason these agencies can deliver faster results is because they’ve got their process down to a science.

“Chances are that someone in your chosen agency has worked on a similar project you’re hoping to be successful on,” says Murray. “That insight means the agency knows what will get the best results in the shortest time.”

The agency also knows which questions to ask when it onboards you, meaning it understands your business goals, what you want to achieve, and exactly how it can help you grow.

2. More cost efficient

“Some businesses are reluctant to work with a full-service marketing agency as they think it will be too expensive, especially in the current economic climate,” says Murray. “However, working with an agency can be a more cost-effective choice.”

It’s typically more affordable to work with a full-service marketing company than to hire a large in-house marketing team that can cover every aspect of your marketing strategy.

Let’s say you want to recruit a content strategist. The average annual salary is $94.744 in the U.S. — and this doesn’t cover pensions, vacations, healthcare, or other benefits.

If you want a team that can cover all your marketing functions, the costs can quickly add up!

Conversely, a full-service marketing agency charges between $500 and $10,000 a month, depending on the services you need.

“An agency will also cover the bulk of the overhead costs, such as enterprise tools, technology, and training,” says Murray.

“Plus, you’ll never have to spend time or money recruiting and onboarding as an agency will always have someone available to cover vacations and emergencies.”

3. Streamlined communication

Good communication is a must when working with any marketing agency. But when you work with multiple agencies, it can be hard to keep track of responses, emails, and reports.

The benefit of working with a full-service marketing agency is that all your information will come from one place, with one designated point of contact.

Plus, a full-service agency can often condense information from all your marketing channels to create reports that are all-encompassing and succinct.

For example, our proprietary marketing technology Conversion IQ pulls information from each of the marketing channels you use.

This makes it easy to see your return on investment (ROI) and how prospective customers interact with your different marketing campaigns. You can also view your dashboard at any time just by logging in.

4. Aligned goals and priorities

Different types of digital marketing initiatives have different KPIs, metrics, and timelines. However, your overall marketing goals still need to be aligned to ensure everything is moving in the right direction.

A full-service marketing agency will have strong communication processes in place. There will be regular meetings between different departments and internal communication platforms in play like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or WhatsApp.

This means that everyone is on the same page when it comes to things like testing, goals, and priorities.

As a result, you avoid doubling work unnecessarily or having campaigns operating in silos. You can also use lessons gleaned from one type of marketing strategy to inform another.

5. Synced marketing channels

Partnering with an agency that has experience across a range of marketing channels means it can bring fresh ideas you might not have considered before.

Maybe there’s a marketing channel you hadn’t considered or thought your target audience didn’t have a presence on. Perhaps the agency tried something new and innovative for a business similar to yours and can apply it to your marketing strategy.

6. Quicker feedback and iterations

Over half of marketing teams now use agile marketing. This is when marketing departments make small, swift changes to drive strategies forward rather than making long, drawn-out decisions.

If your digital marketing agency doesn’t use agile marketing or takes ages to come to decisions on your behalf, it might be time to consider a new partnership.

The benefits of using full-service digital marketing agencies are that they use cross-functional teams, regularly communicate, and embrace change. This means more flexibility and a commitment to regular testing, updating, and optimizing.

7. A stronger understanding of your customers

How do you get the data to help you identify who your ideal customer is?

The benefit of working with a full-service marketing agency is that it can gather data from a wide range of platforms – from Google Analytics to LinkedIn.

The agency can then help you interpret this data, making it easy to understand your target customers and which marketing platforms you should use to appeal to them.

8. Identify patterns and trends

Another good thing about having all of your marketing under one umbrella? It’s easier to spot patterns and trends across multiple channels.

This lets you see what works for your business and develop a stronger marketing strategy.

For example, have you seen success with paid social ads for a particular demographic or region? Why not try the same idea with your display ads?

Noticing these trends is much easier when you work with a one-stop-shop agency.

9. Access to a diverse roster of experienced marketing pros

“The number one benefit of working with a full-service marketing agency is definitely the combined years of experience you get,” says Murray.

“When someone at HawkSEM has a question, they have over 80 other people in the room to ask for advice, and it’s easy to get a second or third pair of eyes to look over a project.”

“We also collaborate with each other to ensure we stay on the pulse of market trends and deliver the best ROI for our clients.”

An agency that focuses on a particular marketing channel (for example, social media marketing or email marketing) will know the ins and outs of its specialist area of expertise.

However, it will not necessarily have the well-rounded approach that a team of experts in a full-service agency can offer.

10. Ability to scale up (or down) as needed

Your agency will recommend which marketing channels will take your business to the next level and bring additional team members on board to help out as needed.

A full-service marketing agency also has lots of links to suppliers and providers you can take advantage of. For example, if you need graphic design or web design and this isn’t a service the agency provides, it can put you in touch with the right people.

How to find the right pros to work with

So you now know the benefits of working with a full-service marketing agency. But how do you find the right one to work with?

We asked Murray for her top tips for finding the right agency to fulfil your marketing needs.

• Understand what you want your marketing agency to achieve. For example, do you want to increase sales, boost brand awareness, or launch a new product or service?
• Ask for recommendations. Friends, peers, and related businesses in your sector will be able to advise which marketing agencies to approach.
• Look at previous results the agency has achieved for other clients – through reviews, testimonials, and case studies. “Honesty is vital,” says Murray. “An agency promising insane results in a short amount of time is unlikely to be telling the truth and not have your best interests at heart.”
• Understand the strategy the agency will use – most agencies will be more than happy to talk you through their processes. “A good agency will use strong data to lead decisions and not apply the same cookie-cutter marketing plan to every client,” says Murray.

Why hiring a full-service marketing agency may not be right for you

Hiring a marketing agency can lead to a range of benefits for your business. However, it’s not the right choice for everyone.

Here are some signs that a full-service agency might not be the best option for your needs:

• You have a tight budget. While an agency might not be as expensive as you think, you are paying for a vast range of services and expertise. If you’re a smaller business or a startup, you may want to prioritize specific marketing channels instead.
• You don’t have a solid business plan quite yet. If you’re a newer business still fine-tuning the details, most of these marketing agency benefits won’t quite apply to you yet. Wait until you have a strong business plan under your belt and then consider outside help.
• You like to be in control. Agencies will have their own processes to maximize output. If you prefer to use your own procedures or want to oversee every little detail, a marketing agency might not be right for you.
• You have an in-house team and aren’t ready to scale. If you have a solid in-house marketing team and a sales team with limited bandwidth, hiring an agency would be a waste of resources.
• You don’t have a goal in mind. A marketing agency can help you achieve your marketing goals. However, if you don’t have goals yet, it’s worth holding off until you have a plan in place.

Thriftbooks: A case study on marketing agency benefits

Bookseller Thriftbooks came to HawkSEM looking for help with its business growth through a full-service marketing strategy.

Previously, the business worked with a smaller marketing agency. But as it scaled, it wanted to work with a team that could align its existing strategies and develop larger, more complex marketing campaigns.

Once we understood ThriftBooks business needs and goals, our expert team members consolidated the business’s existing campaigns with new structures. We then tested and implemented new marketing campaigns, bringing in multi-touch attribution to see which channels contributed to the most conversions.

The result? We increased clickthrough rate by 35% year over year and boosted average order value (AOV) by 50%.

Barbara Hagen, the VP of Sales and Marketing at Thiftbooks says, “we truly feel like we have a partnership and not just a client/agency relationship.”

The takeaway

As business owners realize that more and more prospective customers are looking for them online, the demand for digital marketing agencies is growing.

In fact, the full-service digital marketing agencies market is set to reach a staggering $907 billion by 2035!

Sure, we may be slightly biased about the benefits of working with a marketing agency. But the facts remain: agencies like ours are ideal for streamlined communication, budget, scalability, and the management of digital marketing campaigns.

Want to see how we can seamlessly manage all of your digital marketing channels and offer a fresh perspective on how you do business? Get in touch today for your free, no-obligation consultation.

This article has been updated and was originally published in September 2020.